Simply delicioso – a love for food and entertaining

Her passion for cooking was awakened at an early age when she started cooking alongside her mother, a Cordon Bleu Chef. She never knew what a kids meal was and believes that knowing another culture’s cuisine is like going to a museum of that country because so much history can be learned from ingredients.

She grew up in Colombia and the Netherlands and her name is a reflection of her German grandfather. For the past 15 years she has been building her brand that is dedicated to highlighting everyday cooking in a creative, fun, and fast way. Ingrid Hoffman is the heart and soul behind Simply Delicioso.

A self-proclaimed professional eater and life lover, Ingrid enjoys entertaining as much as she does cooking. She takes a hands-on approach when it comes to her shows and is personally involved in her social media. “I don’t let anyone else do it. I’m always posting behind the scenes content and on Twitter, you will find me uncensored as well as my recipes.”

Her show Simply Delicioso airs on the Cooking Channel, while her Spanish-language show Delicioso (a weekly one-hour cooking show) recently started its new season on Univision. Ingrid has also partnered with T-fal to develop her own line of cookware and kitchen appliances. However, the success she enjoys today was not obtained overnight. When she first started on this journey, she was told, “No major network would pick up this type of project.” But making her dream of appearing on Univision proved that “What you set your mind to, you can achieve. Never take ‘no’ for an answer,” she said in a phone interview.

“Delicioso is more than just a brand, it’s also a state of mind. It’s what has kept me going and focused on what it means to be delicious: putting time into mind, body, and soul.”

As successful as she is, Ingrid puts a lot of emphasis on giving back to the community and food education. She is currently a board member of New York City’s Food and Education Fund and Miami’s Amigos for Kids, as well as an active supporter of Manhattan’s Food and Finance High School, Believe for Colombia Foundation, and the Humane Society of Greater Miami. She is a big advocate of change and believes that food education should start in the home as well.

“As a nation, it is important to reform health care, but it’s also necessary to reform agriculture. It’s about starting from the beginning and not just taking pills.”

As for what being Latina means to her, Ingrid said, “Being Latino means everything. We are humble, passionate, and emotional people with great resilience; we’re hard workers and important for the future of the U.S.”

Nicolle was born in Philadelphia, raised in England and Germany, and lived in Madrid, Spain for a year in college. She has a B.A. in Journalism from Drexel University.

This avid reader and writer seeks to write and create pieces that encourage people to think and question what they already know, but also to show them the lighter side of life.
Her interest in writing and working for Being Latino comes from the desire to explore what being Latino means for her as a German-Panamanian and to explore the depths of the Latino culture.

She has a passion for all things relating to books, food and booze and shares her musings on her personal blog Culture Jaunt, and currently resides in Philadelphia.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and should not be understood to be shared by Being Latino, Inc.